November 3, 2021: Red Jellyfish
Image courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration, Deep Connections 2019. Download larger version (jpg, 1.5 MB).
Happy World Jellyfish Day! The dusky red jelly, Poralia sp., is a common sight during midwater transects. This one was seen during midwater exploration off Bear Seamount within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument as part of the Deep Connections 2019 expedition. During the water column portion of the dive, we observed a multitude of midwater life, including a rattail fish, a hydromedusa, a sawtooth eel, a potentially undescribed ctenophore, a smelt, and a chimera, as seen in this video of dive highlights. The water column is one of the largest, yet least explored, habitats on Earth.